Mother's Care
by Normryl
Summary: Complete. Add on to Borders. I couldn't resist sending Jack and Mickey out shopping together. Best to read Borders first, but you can probably work the story out from this, it's not that complex. Enjoy.


Mother's Care

Addition to 'Borders' because I just couldn't resist having Jack and Mickey out shopping.  
Disclaimer: The usual stuff, I don't own the characters etc.  
Warnings: None

The two men stood out in the store mainly full of women. It didn't help that one was smartly dressed in a suit, the other casually dressed but covered in flecks of paint.

"Okay, we'll start with basics." Jack said as they stood in front of the cots and beds displayed there. "You're gonna need a bed. Just think how small it'll be so you need a crib before you get anything like that." Jack pointed to the larger child's bed displayed next to the cots.

"Right." Mickey said. That was obvious enough.

"To go with that you'll need a mattress, blankets, you'll want to make sure you've got a couple in case the baby throws up on the one it's using, so makes sure you have spares of everything. You might like to get a mobile for over the bed to. Right, a pram or pushchair next." Jack said, walking towards the display he spotted over in another corner of the store.

Mickey followed behind his former boss and watched as he surveyed what was on offer. "Well, what do you think?" Jack asked.

"What about?" Mickey asked

"The prams. What would you choose if you were here alone?"

Mickey looked at them, all seeming quite similar to him. He saw a proper pram, one of the bigger ones compared to the compact newer ones, the type he saw women using when he was a kid. "That one." he said, pointing to it.

Jack shook his head. "Are you trying to get in financial trouble?" he asked. "That's the right type but you get that and when you've got a toddler you're gonna have to fork out again. More cost, Mickey. Look at this one." Jack pointed to one of the more modern three in one pushchairs. "This one has a car seat which is perfect for a newborn baby, you won't have to buy a seperate car seat and you have the pushchair when they're older. That's your best buy."

"How'd you know so much about this?" Mickey asked

"I'm a worldly man." Jack said. "What shall we look at next?"

"I think I'm gonna 'ave to come back another time, it's doin' me box in." Mickey said. "I think I'll stick with me border for now."

Jack smiled, knowing how much of a headache this was. "OK. Think you can handle borders, eh?"

"Better than this." Mickey said.

They left the Mothercare store, although Jack did buy something while Mickey went over to a newsagents to get a drink, but he wouldn't show Mickey what it was.

Mickey tried not to care, but the detective in him was desperate to know what it was.

Mickey found Homebase much safer territory. Lots of men about, hammers, paint, power tools all mens stuff, not baby clothes and lotions that littered Mothercare.

They navigated their way to the wallpaper section and found the kids borders.

There were two kids ripping up samples of the borders when they got there.

Mickey watched as one of the kids started to tear up the last of one of the samples, splitting it right down the middle and ruining it. "'Ere, bugger off!" Mickey said to the little boy. The kids wide eyed terror at the two grown ups standing over him was enough to stop him in his tracks and he carefully removed himself from the section and along with the other kids, they scooted off.

Mickey looked to Jack who was barely hiding a smirk on his face. "What?" he said.

"Like that sample did you?" Jack said, the smile showing itself as he spoke.

"Well, what if that's the one I want?" Mickey said as he picked up the remaining piece of the border. It had a variety of animals on it, all with smiles on their faces. It was actually quite cute, something that Mickey wouldn't admit to, of course.

"OK, besides that, anything else you like?" Jack said.

"Well, I dunno. Do you think I should 'ave a neutral one or wait to find out what we're 'aving?" Mickey idly scratched his chin where there was a slight build up of stubble.

"Probably easier to go for neutral. Just in case you have another one at some point, you don't have to re-decorate."

"If I 'ave another one I'm screwed. I've only got two bedrooms." Mickey said.

"Well you know what I mean." Jack said.

He watched as Mickey began to tear off a few samples of some of the different papers.

He soon had a large collection of samples rolled up in his hand.

"I think we'd best get going." Jack said.

Mickey stood from the crouched position he was in and looked to Jack. "Why, you bored?"

Jack gently nodded to a large man at the end of the aisle in front of him and the two kids returning to him after the telling off from Mickey, the one who'd been ripping the paper up could be heard crying from some distance.

"Oh, bloody 'ell." Mickey said, noting the size of the man.

He could imagine this guy coming barreling down the aisle after them, grabbing him by the throat for upsetting his kid.

"I'll tell you something, Mickey." Jack said as he turned the corner quickly so if the man looked up he wouldn't see them. "I'm not coming shopping with you again."

End


End file.
